


In Absentia

by jennfics



Category: NCIS
Genre: 5:1, F/M, TIVA - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-14 21:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3425840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennfics/pseuds/jennfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Tony DiNozzo kissed a woman, and the one time he got it right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Absentia

1,

The first time Tony DiNozzo kisses a woman, she’s not quite a woman. Her name is Anna, the daughter of a Persian business man whose family is spending the summer in the Hamptons camped out in the house across the street from the DiNozzo family complex. He watches her from the window as she plays tag with her father and two brothers in their front yard. She’s brave and tough, doesn’t cry when her brother pushes her down. On the contrary, she stands then marches over to him, giving a rough shove in return. He can’t hear what she says, but her brother looks stunned. Crossing her arms over her chest, she smirks with pride. When she catches him watching, she gives him a quick nod.

Their family attends the annual _DiNozzo Family Fourth of July Bash_ a week later. She runs through the dunes behind the house right up the water’s edge. He follows her, of course. When she turns back to face him, she reaches out a hand. With only a moment’s pause, he takes her hand and wades into the water to his ankles. He’s seven and she’s five. Her hair is a brown, curly mess. She has tan skin and dark eyes, and Tony DiNozzo has never seen anything like her in his life. There’s a wildness about her that he doesn’t understand; and he shocks himself when he leans down to press his lips to her cheek. She doesn’t respond, only grins at him wickedly.

Years will pass, as will his mother, and Tony DiNozzo will forget that summer. He won’t remember Anna or his first kiss. But there will come a day when he’s chasing another woman with curly hair, dark eyes, and tanned skin; and he’ll wonder briefly why her wicked smile reminds him of the smell of salt water.

 

2. 

Tony DiNozzo will kiss many women in his life. Many, many women. Some, like Anna, will be only shadows of memory. There are also a few he’d like to forget, but can’t. Wendy would fall into that latter category. His one-time fiancé. The woman who was his future.

The first time he kisses Wendy, they’re both drunk. Its college and the 90’s, before he blew out his knee, back when he had options. The second time he kisses Wendy, neither of them are drunk. He’ll kiss her every day for the next nine years. Most of those days are happy, until they aren’t.

The night she leaves is the night before their wedding. He cries, then gets drunk on cheap liquor. The next morning, he awakens on the bathroom floor with his face sticking to the tile. He’ll spend the next several years climbing in and crawling out of a bottle. It’s not her fault exactly, but he blames her anyway.

 

3.

Ziva David is a force of nature. Her mouth is hot and wet; and when she bites his lower lip between her teeth, he can’t help the groan that escapes from deep in his throat. She’s right. It’s definitively not his knee.

He will remember how she tastes, those softs moans he pulls from her with just his nimble fingers, and the lavender smell of her hair when he’s alone and in need. Those same memories will haunt him on the nights he drinks himself into a stupor believing she’s died, and will force him into the desert to pull her from perdition.

 

4.

His relationship with Jeanne Benoit is a ruse. She is a mark and he is a federal agent. Somewhere along the way, he loses these truths in favor of an alternate reality.

He likes Tony DeNardo - a college professor, in film no less. Tony DeNardo’s life is easy. The only gruesome murders Tony DeNardo sees are on screen, as are the Israeli femme fatales. There is no need for forensic analysis, or macabre humor. Tony DeNardo has never been on the receiving end of a headslap.

The night he tells Jeanne he loves her, he kisses her senseless as he tries to believe it. Wills himself to trust that this is more than a mission, more than a job. This could be real. He could have this life.

They tell him relationships built on deceit will never survive the truth. In this case, they’re right.

 

5. 

EJ Barrett is the female version of Tony DiNozzo. She is confident and unafraid to take what she wants. The first time he kisses her, he’s actually kissing back. EJ Barrett is always the first to make a move.

He tries to kiss her good-bye when he leaves her apartment in the morning. She waves him off while telling him “not necessary.” As she turns over in bed and settles back into sleep, he is struck by an overwhelming sense of anger. Tony DiNozzo does not like dating himself. He wonders why anyone else would either, and vows in that moment to make some changes. It’s time to do this better.

 

_…and the one time he got it right_

 

He awakens to the smell of fresh coffee and sounds of quiet laughter. Sundays mornings rank high on his list of favorite things. He makes a quick stop in the bathroom before pulling on a shirt and heading for the kitchen, just in time to watch his daughter shove a bite of pancake into her mouth. There’s syrup dripping down her chin, but she gives him a triumphant grin as she holds her fork up high.

He swoops down to press a kiss to her cheek, then blows a raspberry onto her neck.

“Morning munchkin,” he swipes his tongue across his lips, tasting syrup.

She giggles happily, “morning daddy! We’re having pancakes!”

“I can see that.” He tussles his hand through her curls before coming to stand behind his wife. He wraps his arms around her waist as she stands at the stovetop, pulling their breakfast from the pan and onto a serving tray.

Dropping soft kisses to her shoulder and the exposed skin of her neck, he hears her sigh happily as she leans into him. “Good morning,” he murmurs into her hair.

Ziva turns her head just enough to press her mouth to his, gentle and warm.

“Good morning, Tony.”


End file.
